In honor of our former managing partner, Kristen D. Hofheimer, who passed away on January 19, 2019, after a long battle with breast cancer, we’ve decided to shake things up a bit. We’ve always been the first, largest family law firm in Virginia dedicated to representing women exclusively. Kristen was, of course, a very large part of that – she literally wrote the book on Virginia custody cases for moms (The Woman’s Custody Survival Guide), created our Custody Bootcamp for Moms seminar to help teach moms how to represent themselves (or check up on their attorneys, if they’re represented by counsel) in juvenile court in Virginia, and founded our super popular Girl’s Night Out group to help women going through divorce and custody cases connect socially with other similarly situated women.
For a long time, we’ve talked about doing more. But what? And how? We had a lot of questions, and it took awhile to come up with something that we think will be perfect for us, and the women we serve. Not only that, but it will also be a fitting tribute to Kristen’s memory.
The Kristen D. Hofheimer Memorial Scholarship will provide two $1,000 scholarships for divorced/divorcing Virginia women.
Whether it’s a technical or vocational school, a training certificate, or tuition and fees in a two or four year program at an accredited Virginia school, we’re committed to doing our bit to help divorced women create the happily ever after they’ve been envisioning, all in Kristen’s name.
There’s no merit badge for remaining in an unsuccessful, unhappy, or otherwise unfulfilling marriage. And, in many cases, a divorce really paves the way to the kind of future that a woman at one point was only able to dream of. We want to be a part of that transition – from unhappy to healthy, from unfulfilled to full of potential.
Though we’ll always regret that Kristen was gone from us too soon, we’re excited to sponsor something in her name as a lasting tribute to her indomitable spirit and warrior princess memory. We wanted to be sure to share all the details with you first, in case you have any patients or know of any other deserving divorced or divorcing Virginia women who might want to apply.
So, how does your scholarship program work? What does a divorced woman have to do to apply?
It’s a video essay competition, so each applicant must submit, along with an application, a video essay of at least 2 minutes, but no more than five minutes, in length.
The topic is “my next great adventure,” and it’s a place to discuss the positive impact that a divorce has had on a woman’s life. Ideally, she’d convince us why she’s the candidate most deserving of a scholarship – not because of what she’s been through, but because of where she’s going, and what she plans to do with this new opportunity.
Each video essay will be reviewed by our team internally, and the five best will be selected to be featured on our website and social media pages. We’ll post the videos and open it up for voting, too, so that the featured women can encourage friends and family to vote for her and help her earn her scholarship.
What else do I need to know?
We’ll begin accepting applications on March 1, and we’ll make a selection of the five best candidates around May 31. In the month of June, we’ll post the applications for voting on our website, and we’ll make a final determination in July, so that the winners have their scholarships in time to enroll for the fall semester.
I know someone who might be interested! Or – Hey, I’m interested!
Great! Let her know about us! Shoot us an email at office@hoflaw.com, and we’ll add you to our list to be updated as soon as we roll out our online application.
Questions? Concerns? Comments? Give us a call at 757-425-5200.
We’re really excited about this program, and hope that it will help us inspire, empower, and support more Virginia women than ever. Thanks for your support!